1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to using a radio receiving device in a selective call scheme as a means for storing specified data for example loyalty points earned by the user of the device, which points can be exchanged for benefits of any one of a variety of types, and to a method of operating a loyalty program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Loyalty schemes are known in which a user presents a plastics card having the user""s personal number to a cashier at a check-out and the cashier swipes the card through a card reader and enters the number of points earned or the amount spent. The points are credited by a central computer to the user. In some loyalty schemes the user is notified of the number of points accumulated by periodically sent statements. When the number of points exceeds an arbitrary number, the user is able to trade the points for some benefit in kind such as a voucher which can be used subsequently in purchasing goods at one of the branches of the store, the issue of a voucher causing the number of points to be reduced by a predetermined amount. Generally speaking, irrespective of the types of plastics card, the user cannot determine at their own volition the number of points which they have accumulated. Consequently, there is insufficient incentive to earn more points by increasing the usage of the card.
An object of the present invention is to have a data transmission system in which specified data relating to a user of the system can be displayed to that user.
Another object of the present invention is to operate a loyalty program which enables points to be accumulated without having to present a plastics card to a check-out.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of operating a selective call system comprising a primary station and at least one secondary station, the method comprising the primary station creating a qualifying call having a characteristic from which a secondary station can determine data, transmitting the qualifying call to an addressed secondary station, and the secondary station using the characteristic in the qualifying call to update data stored in a non-volatile store.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a selective call system comprising a primary station and at least one secondary station, the primary station comprising means for creating a qualifying call having a characteristic from which a secondary station can determine data, means for encoding and formatting the qualifying call and means for transmitting the qualifying call, and the secondary station comprising means for receiving the qualifying call, means for decoding and deformatting the qualifying call, means for checking if the qualifying call is addressed to the secondary station, means for checking if the call is a qualifying call, means for deriving data using the characteristic in the qualifying call and means for storing the data in a non-volatile store for use by the user.
According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a secondary station for use in a selective call system in which a primary station creates and transmits a point-to-point qualifying call having a characteristic from which the secondary station can determine data, the secondary station comprising means for receiving the qualifying call, means for recovering the qualifying call, means for deriving the data using the characteristic in the qualifying call and a non-volatile store for storing the data for use by the user.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of operating a loyalty program, comprising the steps of assigning points to transactions, transmitting a points qualifying call to a receiving station held by a user involved in the transaction, determining the number of points from a points qualifying call, accumulating the points in a non-volatile store and rewarding the user by exchanging at least some of the accumulated points for a benefit to the user.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of operating a loyalty program on a selective call system comprising a primary station and a plurality of secondary stations, the method including the steps of assigning points to a transaction, the primary station transmitting a points qualifying call to at least one of the secondary stations involved in a transaction, accumulating the points in a non-volatile store of the at least one of the secondary stations, and rewarding a user of the at least one of the secondary stations by exchanging at least some of the accumulated points for a benefit to the user.
By way of the method and system in accordance with the present invention, the user of a secondary station can be informed of the current level of the accumulated data by for example displaying the contents of the non-volatile store.
Various implementations of the method and system in accordance with the present invention are possible. For example the content of the non-volatile store may be credited or debited by over-the-air messages or the content may be overwritten by an updating message. Instead of using a specified data field as the characteristic in the qualifying calls, the identifying indicia of the secondary station may be the characteristic which is used to determine the data which is stored in the non-volatile store.
If desired the qualifying call may include a security field which is used by the secondary station to verify the validity of the data.